Joe Biden’s UNESCO fiasco
UNESCO passes more scandalous anti-Israel resolutionsRep. Mark Green: Rejoining UNESCO ‘undermines’ US-Israel relationship
What is particularly galling about this move is that just last month, UNESCO once again passed a series of scandalous anti-Israel resolutions at the 216th session of its executive board in Paris, which was held from May 10 to 24.
Take, for example, Item 33 of the UNESCO board’s agenda, which is titled “Occupied Palestine” and reads like it was formulated by the worst of Israel’s foes.
In a subsection about Jerusalem, the Jewish state is described as the “Occupying Power” over the city, and the board’s members declare that Israel’s Basic Law on Jerusalem, which established the city as our united capital, is “null and void and must be rescinded forthwith.”
Another subsection declares that both Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, where the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jewish people are buried, are “Palestinian sites” which are under Israeli occupation.
This is so patently offensive and insulting to Jewish belief that it borders on outright antisemitism.
Denying the Jewishness of our ancestors is nothing less than a direct assault on the very foundations of the Jewish people, and UNESCO deserves to be shunned for it, not embraced.
Regarding Gaza, the UNESCO board criticized “Israeli army violations” in the area, while failing to mention Hamas and Islamic Jihad or their habit of firing thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians. And it also bemoaned the situation on the “Occupied Syrian Golan.”
If this is what UNESCO’s director-general had in mind when she said that she had managed to “reduce political tensions and find consensus on the most sensitive topics, such as the Middle East,” then I would hate to see what a flare-up might look like.
THE FACT of the matter is that UNESCO and its obscene anti-Israel bias has not changed one whit.
As the Palestinian news agency WAFA gleefully reported on May 19, “For the first time, a symposium marking the 75th anniversary of the Nakba was hosted at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO’s) Headquarters in Paris.”
In other words, an organization ostensibly devoted to promoting the benefits of knowledge and culture instead played host to an event mourning the establishment of the State of Israel.
These outrageous positions are in line with UNESCO’s long-standing hostility toward Jewish history and memory.
Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) told JNS that the United States must continue to stand with its ally Israel, which rejoining UNESCO undercuts.
“The Biden administration’s decision to rejoin UNESCO undermines this important alliance because of UNESCO’s history of passing anti-Israel resolutions, including one identifying Israel as ‘the occupying power’ in Jerusalem,” Green said. “Any organization that doesn’t treat Israel as a legitimate and contributing nation does not deserve U.S. support or participation.”
At a time when Washington ought to be cutting spending, Americans should be “furious” that the Biden administration is paying hundreds of millions of dollars to UNESCO, according to Green, a member of the House Republican Israel Caucus.
“The U.S. will likely return to becoming its largest funder. This is a bad use of taxpayer dollars, to say the least,” he said. “UNESCO made its stance on Israel clear. By rejoining this organization, the Biden administration is turning its back on our friend and ally.”
It had previously been illegal under U.S. law for Washington to fund any U.N. entity that bestows full membership on entities lacking “internationally recognized attributes” of statehood. In 2011, the Obama administration stopped funding UNESCO after it welcomed Palestine as a member, and in 2018, the Trump administration exited UNESCO altogether, and Israel followed thereafter.